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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoAshleigh Ferguson ClaarThe McArthur SuperValu store, Vinton County’s only supermarket, closed on Sept. 1, forcing residents to drive many miles for meat and fresh produce.

McARTHUR, Ohio — People in Vinton County are used to living without many of the shopping choices
that others take for granted, but now they don’t even have a supermarket.

Not a single full-service grocery remains in the entire Appalachian Ohio county of about 13,200
people since the McArthur SuperValu closed on Sept. 1.

Now, residents have to drive farther to shop. Both Walmart and Kroger have stores about 30
minutes from the Vinton County seat of McArthur, in Athens, Chillicothe, Logan and Jackson.

“It’s hard to fathom not having a grocery store in your entire county,” said state Rep. Ryan
Smith, a Gallia County Republican who is trying to help Vinton County attract a replacement.

“We are trying to make Ohioans healthier,” Smith said. “That’s pretty hard to do when you’re not
able to purchase fresh produce and fresh meat.”

Discussion of “food deserts” usually focuses on poor neighborhoods in Columbus and other cities
across the country, which brim with convenience stores selling soda, chips and hot dogs but are
barren of full-service markets selling fresh fruits and vegetables.

Vinton County, a steeply hilled, heavily wooded county about 75 miles southeast of Columbus,
shares some of the demographics of the urban poor. Its 9.6 percent jobless rate in December was
ninth-highest in the state, and census data show that 21.4 percent of the population lives below
the poverty level, compared with 15.4 percent throughout Ohio.

But unlike city dwellers, shoppers here cannot walk or hop a bus to a supermarket. Older people,
in particular, relied on the SuperValu.

“We have a lot of people in Vinton County who can drive in town but not to Chillicothe, Athens,
Wellston or Logan. They can’t drive a distance,” said Rhoda Toon-Price, executive director of
Vinton County Senior Citizens.

Her agency, which provides meals, transportation and other services, now takes an average of 20
people a month grocery shopping who used to drive themselves to the SuperValu, she said.

In addition to Rep. Smith, state Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Albany, and a state development
official have pledged to help the county attract another full-service grocery, the Vinton County
commissioners said. No one thinks it will be easy.

“We contacted every chain you can imagine,” said Commissioner Jerry Zinn. “The only one who
called back with any interest was Kroger. They dropped interest after learning our
demographics."

Zinn and Commissioners Michael Bledsoe and Tim Eberts said they are working with someone to open
a small, full-service grocery elsewhere in McArthur and are exploring with state officials whether
the county can extend a new-business loan as a sweetener.

“It is a highly competitive business,” said Nate Filler, the president and CEO of the Ohio
Grocers Association, which has just over 400 members. “If there’s a need to be filled, they will do
their best to fill it.”

However, Vinton County’s sparse population is among its biggest challenges in attracting a
grocery. “That’s for sure,” Filler said.

But even Morgan County, another Appalachian county with slightly more people, has a Kroger and
an IGA in the county seat of McConnelsville.

Tom and Maryjane Ferguson had owned and run the SuperValu since 1986. The Fergusons were known
for greeting customers by name, making home deliveries during snowstorms and championing the county
fair.

After Mr. Ferguson died in 2007, Mrs. Ferguson continued to run the store, which employed 36
people most recently, said their daughter Ashleigh Ferguson Claar.

Claar planned to keep it going after her mother retired. Plans changed when the family learned
that the Dollar General store, located in the same small shopping center as the SuperValu and the
Family Dollar, was planning to expand.

Dollar General, a Tennessee-based discount-store chain, has been building larger stores across
the country. Dollar General Plus stores are larger than traditional Dollar General stores and
include coolers and freezers stocked with food.

Dollar General Market stores are larger still and resemble grocery stores because they carry
fresh meat and produce. Vinton County leaders thought that McArthur was getting one of those.

Mrs. Ferguson was operating on a small profit margin as it was, because of changed consumer
habits — including more people shopping at the region’s Walmarts — and sales and inventory losses
incurred during the derecho windstorm of 2012, her daughter said.

Dollar General’s real-estate company asked Mrs. Ferguson if she would be interested in selling
the store. She sold the building for $949,750 in November, property records show, and auctioned the
equipment and inventory.

The sale broke her mother’s heart, Claar said. “We just decided that because of the financial
status of the business, that it was not an offer we could turn down. The perception was if they
purchased our store, they would bring in a Market.”

Dollar General, however, plans to build a Dollar General Plus at the former SuperValu site, not
its larger sister store. It is scheduled to open this year.

“For this location, we determined the Plus format was best,” Dollar General spokeswoman Crystal
Ghassemi said.

Dr. Pat Speck, a 74-year-old retired veterinarian who lives in Creola, just north of McArthur,
said she now drives about 17 miles to the Logan Kroger, or about 30 miles to the Kroger and Aldi
stores in Athens.

“It was a great loss to lose that supermarket,” she said. “I am sure that everybody in the
community feels the same.”